Letter: Parker hits home

Posted: August 11, 2012 - 2:57pm

Kathleen Parker’s (Aug. 2) column hit the nail on the head.

It’s a concern that the next generation doesn’t seem to be aware of valuable information in order to be cognizant of how the world works. I’ve read that many states no longer teach government or civics and boards of education are now wanting to rewrite history to be more politically correct. News is not only a “tweet” here or there; it’s the fascination with “viral” videos on YouTube about something totally inane.

I work with both the X and Y generations. When discussing topics with my peers, comments from the next generation may be made, “I didn’t know that” or “Where did you hear that?” Most don’t read books or watch local news. They don’t read newspapers, either in print or on line, but they’ll jump into a discussion covering just about anything.

I believe we have a need to share knowledge that is representative of both sides of any argument. We should take any and every opportunity to share that knowledge. They don’t have to agree with my side, but we should be able to hold a discourse.

Someone might impress me occasionally with a logical thought on a substantial topic and I continue to believe that there will be a future for not only me, but my grandchildren and theirs.

ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for
following agreed-upon rules of civility. Posts and
comments do not reflect the views of this site. Posts and comments are
automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some
comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules,
click the "Flag as offensive" link below the comment.

Comment viewing options

Sort Comments

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

History always has a way of repeating itself if we do not learn from our mistakes, and we have not learned yet.

Everyone now days want to be politically correct and they are afraid of hurting special interests groups, nations, and religious feelings. Well that is to bad. History is what history is, it shows what mankind has done to each other over the years and you are correct, nations and these groups want to rewrite history to show they were not the aggressors and being the violent as they were. They want to be shown that they were the victims when in reality they were the bad guys. Leave the history books as is, showing the truth as it happened, not someones fantasy. We need to continue to teach our younger generation of everyone's, including our own mistakes as they actually happened.

History is slippery stuff, cw. Is the Earth millions of years old or 6000? Was it Benteen’s fault that Custer got wiped out? What will history say about our invasion of Iraq?
As for PC, where does it stop just being polite and turn into gratuitous insults? Some people take great exception to the n-word. Are they just being too sensitive? PC is pretty slippery too.

History happened only one way. Any other interpretation is Fictional BS. Are you saying Fiction should be History class? If you do some research on the n-word it goes back to Latin Black or you can trace it back to a country in Africa. Just study your Geography.

James Madison, "Father of the Constitution" and chief author (1794): ""I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."

the north korean government still insists that it was the south koreans who invaded north korea in June 1950 to start the Korean war.

Germany claimed that Poland had attacked German forces on the border between Germany and Poland. And they repeated a similar claim--that Russians had attacked German forces when they attacked Russia in Operation Barbarossa in 1941.

American history books, at least up until about the mid 1970s, taught history pretty much as it was. Admitting that Americans had made mistakes, but had kept trying to present the advantages of our way of life to others, throughout our history. And stating the truth that this country was founded on Christian principles, and on the rule of law--which is Judeo Christian, itself--it holds all responsible to the law, including the ruling class. Yes, it is not perfect, and will never be perfect until Christ returns to set up His kingdom.

It has only been in the last 30 years or so that the widespread use of "textbooks" by the likes of Saul Alinsky, Bellesiles, and others, who claim that all the faults of the world are to be laid at the feet of "old white men" like Jefferson, Washington, and so on, because they owned slaves, have become prevalent. The socialist/communist "historians have deliberately distorted our nation's history for a whole generation.

So, matt, how old is the Earth? Is millions of years “Fictional BS”? Or is that a subject for history?
Who killed Kennedy?
Was the Civil War about State’s rights or slavery? Or does that matter? History should ignore those kind of questions and stick to battles?
Your idea of “history” is pretty limited, no?